Various systems for identifying and tracing/locating individuals and/or items within a specific area or location are described in the state of the art literature, but all of them are restricted in applicability and fail to teach securing the items within the secure/private area. Further, all existing systems suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages: inability to create a link between owner and item(s) outside the coverage area, inability to handle (trace/locate/identify to receive services) items during an open transaction, static link between the owner and item(s) typically maintained through inventory, automated or semi-automated registration/activation capabilities are missing, inability to trace and control the processing of items, no secure fixing of item identities, reusability is inexistent or very limited, e.g. static reusability without the ability to adapt information. A handful of prior art solutions is described below, and their shortcomings are summarized.
United States Patent Application US 2005/0168340 A1 describes a method for determining the identity and monitoring the location of a passenger and his/her baggage in an airport. An instance of the method is for instance illustrated by FIG. 38, and described in detail on page 14, paragraph [0108]. Therein, the passenger obtains an identification appliance such as an identification band. For the baggage, a bag identification band is created and both identification bands are activated upon check-in. The bag identification band identifies both the baggage and its owner, hence linking the baggage to the passenger. Band readers and sensors placed at various locations in the airport area track the whereabouts of passenger and baggage. The band readers and sensors are connected to a central computer system that maintains information about the passengers and their baggage. When claiming the baggage at the bag band in the destination arrival terminal, the identification appliance of the passenger and bag must match. The identification appliances for passenger and baggage are deactivated upon completion of the travel event.
The method disclosed in US 2005/0168340 A1 does not secure the bags within the airport area. A bag that is stolen after being claimed by its owner, can be taken outside the airport area by the stealer of the baggage. Another drawback is that the identification bands for traveller and bag are not reusable. They are activated at check-in and deactivated upon completion of the travel event, and are not reusable during later travel events. Also, US 2005/0168340 A1 does not teach how to securely fix the bag bands to the baggage. Without secure fixing, the bag band can be removed and/or replaced, and it can be used on other bags for fraudulent purposes such as theft, smuggling, terrorist acts, etc. The system disclosed in US 2005/0168340 A1 is limited in applicability to transportation such as airplane, train, boat, bus or other vehicle travelling, and restricted to determining the identity and location. Handling (tracing/locating/identifying to receive services) items during a transaction and controlling the processing is not possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,872 discloses a system for identifying items and individuals in a secured location and for prohibiting the removal of secured items from the secured location, except for authorized individuals. The system is based on transponders that can be sensed from a distance to identify both the items and the individuals. Detectors that sense the transponders, typically positioned at the entrance and/or exit of the secured location, are connected to a reasoning system that enforces certain security rules and generates alerts for security personnel in case the security rules are violated.
The system known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,872 is limited in functionality. Firstly, it does not trace events or transactions of the items and individuals in the secured/private location, and certainly does not enable controlling or facilitating the processing of items during a transaction. The system prohibits removal of secured items from the secured location through a complex reasoning system based on security rules and processes, feedback from security personnel regarding efficiency of the security rules and a learning system that updates or creates new rules in conformance with the feedback of security personnel. U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,872 further does not teach secure fixing of the transponders to the items, hence enabling removal and replacement of transponders for fraudulent purposes. Lastly, there is no automated or semi-automated activation/de-activation of the transponders identifying the individuals and items, and it is not clear whether the transponders are reusable inside or outside the secured location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,634 entitled “Item Removal System and Method” describes a security system for prevention of unauthorized removal of items from an organizations' facilities. Items like laptop computers are tagged with a first tag, preferably securely attached. Employees are carrying a second tag, e.g. integrated in their employee badge. A database maintains information that associates items with employees, and an intelligent gate, door or turnstile locks automatically to prevent. removal of an item by a person who is not authorized to remove the item. U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,634 however does not deal with tracing, locating and/or identifying an owner and items to receive services—the security system disclosed therein is limited to theft prevention of items in organizations' facilities—and it does not suggest to tag items with reusable tags, to remotely register the owner of items, to enable the owner to activate the link with the reusable item tags, and to facilitate handling and controlling the owner and items during a transaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260 and corresponding Patent Application US 2002/082859A1 entitled “System and Method for Selectively Allowing the Passage of a Guest Through a Region Within a Coverage Area” describe a method for tracing guests within a coverage area through RFID tags worn by the guests. The coverage area can be an amusement park, ski resort, hotel, theatre, cruise ship, fair, etc. as is indicated in column 2, lines 39-44 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260. The RFID tags are obtained and activated at check-in from an operator that manually checks-in the guest. The check-in process is described in column 3, line 55-column 4, line 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260. A guest data object is stored in a central server or database, and the data objects of several guests, e.g. adult and child, family members, a group of friends, a group of employees, etc., can be linked in the database. Within the coverage area, kiosks and points-of-sale (POS) with connectivity to the central server enable added-value services focused on sales within the amusement park but not supporting a process with transactions, like purchasing monetary credits (kiosk), facilitating monetary transactions (POS), reserving times for events, attractions and restaurants (kiosk), purchasing items (POS), and sharing messages with other guests (kiosk). Further, turnstile systems are located at the entrance/exit of the coverage area to prevent for instance children from leaving the coverage area unattended or with an unauthorized person.
The system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260 is limited to tracing RFID tagged persons in the coverage area. It is not possible to trace items. It is not able to register an owner automatically or semi-automatically without intervention of an operator, and it is not able to create the link between an owner and an individual or item from outside the coverage area or from a remote location. This link is always created manually by a third-party involved, i.e. the operator at check-in. The system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260 is not able to identify items outside the coverage area. At best, U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260 suggests to use the ID no. written on the tag for downloading pictures taken in the secure area. The tag itself however cannot be used thereto and the ability to download pictures taken requires activation of this feature when the guest is in the park (see column 19, lines 27-45). Also, this system follows children within a specific area. It is not adapted to follow items or humans that are subject to a transaction (e.g. an automated or semi-automated process) wherein the owner/parent is given visibility and control on the transaction process. Thus, with the system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260, items can get stolen and be taken outside the coverage area by persons that are not the owner of the item. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260 fails to disclose secure tagging of the guests that are traced. The suggested bracelet, wrist band and pin of column 8, line 66 are all removable by a malicious person. Without secure tagging, the RFID tags can be removed, replaced, interchanged, or lost as a result of which guests have unauthorized access to services inside the coverage area and/or can leave the coverage area unattended. Further, the RFID tags are also not reusable in the system of U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260. As is explicitly mentioned in column 8, line 55-column 9, line 3, the guests receive the identification tags at entrance of the coverage area. Receiving the identification tag is part of the entrance procedure and consequently happens each time the guest re-enters the secure park. The tags can be read (e.g. by the turnstile system) and can be written (e.g. at the entrance upon instruction by the operator, but the read/write property does not imply that a single tag is reusable by a guest during several passages through the amusement park or secure area. Further, although turnstile systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,873,260, there is no reconciliation of data between the owner card and the item card in the turnstile systems to exit the area.
The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,512,879 is limited to prevent infant kidnapping and mixups thanks to active tags. It is not able to prevent infant kidnapping and mixups thanks to passive tags. The Pauley device is also limited to use on a human being by teaching capacitive coupling as a means for determining the continuing proximity to human skin and is thus not suitable for protecting objects in addition to persons. It is not able to prevent infant kidnapping without a system based on skin or physical contact.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,304 describes another parent-infant identification system that is tailored to be used in health-care institutions like hospitals. The identity is kept in an electronically readable data button that is securely fixed to the ankle or wrist of for instance the infant through a bracelet. The data button further keeps matching data for linking the parent and infant. A data button reader is positioned for instance at the exit of the health-care institution and generates an error tone or other audible signal in case of mismatch between the parent- and child buttons.
The system known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,304 is restricted in applicability. It does not enable identification of items, dynamic linking of items to owners, and securing the items within the health-care institution or other secured area. The data buttons that serve as identification means for the parent and child cannot be reused, and there is no automated or semi-automated activation/registration process. This system clearly is not suited to trace items or humans during an open transaction whereby visibility and control on the process is granted to the owner.
European Patent Application EP 0 372 716 entitled “Article Removal Control System” describes another theft or removal prevention system able to authorize removal of an article, for instance a book from a library. Thereto, an article ID is securely attached to the articles and inventory is kept. The user has a reusable user ID but the reusability does not enable adaptation of the information contained. Although verification of the user ID and article ID is automated, the sensing and gantry control is not automated. Also, no services like web portal and messaging are disclosed, simply because the described system keeps inventory and does not enable tracing and controlling the items/books during a transaction or process.
It is an objective of the present invention to disclose a method and system for identifying and handling (tracing/locating/identifying to receive services) an owner and one or more items within a secure/private area, which overcomes the drawbacks and shortcomings of the prior art solutions identified above. In particular, it is an objective of the invention to enable identifying an object (or item) and eventually his owner in a reusable way as well as to identify the object(s) or item(s) in a secure way. It is also an objective to enable dynamic linking the owner and the item(s), the link being activated through an automated or semi-automated process and to trace/control/facilitate the processing of items during a handling process (tracing/locating/identifying to receive services). It is a further objective to provide a method and system that secures the item(s) within the secure/private area, unless the item(s) is/are accompanied by the owner.